When Carolyn Loftus-Roe, a Maine resident who grew up in Stonington, heard her friend back in Connecticut needed a kidney, she wanted to see if she could help.

The Rev. Canon Mark K.J. Robinson, rector of St. Ann's Episcopal Church in Old Lyme and the former rector of Calvary Church in Stonington, where Loftus-Roe attended as a young girl, had been diagnosed with stage 4 kidney disease in July 2015, as a result of kidney damage from when he was a young boy that he continued to monitor.

He said his doctors gave him the prognosis that he could live on dialysis for five to seven years, or he could receive a kidney from a cadaver or a live donor. His family and a number of people, locally and across the country, volunteered to be tested to be a donor.

Loftus-Roe said she and Robinson always had a connection. They shared the same birthday, and he called her each year to sing happy birthday to her. He had three daughters, and Loftus-Roe ended up having three daughters too. When she went through some troubles, Robinson counseled her. Continue reading